a stem from root
by So Guhn
Summary: If only they could stay in that flower field as children forever. Suzaku/Nunnally/Lelouch.


_a stem from root_** ; PG - friendship/gen - Suzaku/Nunnally/Lelouch**

Lelouch leads them to a field that is neither familiar to either Britannian exiles but familiar to Suzaku. He doesn't come here often, there's no need, all it holds is the abundance of flowers near the mountain side, near the forest. He leads them to the very center, abundance of white and green about them. There Suzaku sets Nunnally down softly, crouching- having carried her, Lelouch across the way semi-protesting that he the older borther should be carrying her, but not fully not knowing Suzaku would bring up how he has more strength than the young prince ("Befitting," he had smirked, Lelouch hadn't even tried to punch him then, just thin lipped and glaring, Suzaku had laughed-)

"Sit," Lelouch says, as Suzaku rises to meet his friend with a quizzical look, why did they need to be in a flower field? Lelouch had said he wanted to surprise them but this could hardly be a surprise. He flops down next to Nunnally, brows ferociously indented, wrinkled. Not unopposed to wording this wonder.

"Why are we here Lelouch?"

Lelouch places a finger bout his lips, a near secretive glint about those violet eyes- "You'll see," turning, not walking but not what Suzaku would call running either.

Attentively Nunnally calls, a fissure of soft bells, "Onii-sama?"

Lelouch shoots a tender look back at his little sister coming to the edges of the forest no doubt to enter, "Wait here. I'll return soon Nunnally!"

So there they sit.

Side by side, if they had been any older perhaps Suzaku could suspect something, but he is distracted by the blue sky, a wisp of wind filtering across, not enough to bring ripple and wave across the flowers. Nunnally little hands and arms are moving about around her, picking he deems, the flowers that she can touch and that lie within her cautious reach. It's half a minute more before he fully turns his gaze to her to see what she is doing. Indeed she is picking the flowers, but also patiently bout her lap, weaving the stems bout each other. Suzaku gets up.

"Suzaku-san?" Nunnally calls, but her voice is off as it had been before, this is not the same voice she uses with her brother. He sends her a crooked smile she cannot see yet can only hear in the youthful buoyancy of his voice, "Hold on."

Minutes pass, before she hears rushing steps back to her, a handful of picked flowers freshly moist stems and dainty petals, scattered about the palms and fingers, spilling forth he dips them bout her resting hand, paused in her work to wonder what he is up to. Her shoulders jump in surprise, "Oh! These..."

He sits down next to her again, unable to contain his joy, a fever of faulty jubilee written round his face, "I figure you'd start running out of flowers around you so..." shrugging, "I picked flowers far away from us."

It takes a moment for him to realize she's giggling, light and fleeting behind neither empty hand, his smile broadens; he looks to the sky again, leaning back on his palms before he starts to wonder where Lelouch has gone. He's about to ask Nunnally if she would have an idea, but her hand finds his shoulder. He turns to her and her lips mumble for him to be still- as cautiously she lowers a crown of flowers to the crown of his head. He could tell her it was girly, not manly, he could shout, refuse, and give every other reason to his sudden stammer and blush but- "Nu- nunnally?"

She sits back on her knees, blue shorts unbefitting but substantial. "Euphy-onee-sama taught me how to make them." Suzaku doesn't know who that is but he nods like he understands and she can see it. He notices, there is another in her lap, and he asks aloud, "Don't you want to wear one too?"

She smiles at him in a way he is unsure of, as if this question is expectant and all related to a joke he is not aware of. "There is no need Suzaku-san, because-"

And Lelouch had walked near silent, Suzaku mesmerized in the moment and feel of the flowers above his brow had not noticed the slight movement behind them, but there he is- gently placing atop Nunnally's head a crown of red flowers, bursting red, firm twists keep it together (and maybe some help with a mechanical tool but that is his secret) they are spider lilies, flowers called twilight and Suzaku jumps at having seen them at other more auspicious places (with maybe a casket, or ashes and praying and weeping and-)

"Hey. Lelouch-" his words mumble out, superstition at the tips of his fingers as he reaches out, freezing. Lelouch now sitting aside them, Nunnally placing the other white flower crown on her brother's head before- lightly touching at the crown on hers.

"These flowers..." she starts bolder that she could act less delicately, but her touch remains as such. "Are different than the ones in this field."

Lelouch nods, "Yes. Are you surprised?"

That smile, almost like before. Suzaku has sat back, figuring the both of them impossible. Nunnally giggles, "Of course I am onii-sama."

Suzaku doesn't entirely think so, before he can word this opinion, Lelouch's hand so gently from the tips are touching at Nunnally's still curious hand (seeing the flowers in the way they cannot), a warm smile filling his features that Suzaku cannot look away (Suzaku is an only only only child, he has cousins. But cousins are not siblings.)

Just as gently, the words- "The flowers are red Nunnally, you told me... you love this colour."

She does not reply- turning her hand to reach and touch her brother's, both the palms touching before the arms weigh down and fingers intertwine. Her other hands reaches near Suzaku, and the young Japanese boy cannot refuse the offered extended tenderness, he takes her other hand, basking in Lelouch's content- tender gaze though it is directed at Nunnally and not he. But it takes just a glance for Lelouch to see Suzaku looking at him and his smile broadens just a bit, Suzaku feels himself smile back.

They are his best friends.


End file.
